Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-11-13


you," she said. "How shall i knows
viii some one tell me?"
''Some one viii tell you"
Henry could keep silence no longer.
Perhaps your ladyship may be the per,
son." he interrupted, with ironical polite
ness.
She answered him with contemptuous
ease: you may be right, Mr.. Westwick.
One day or another / may be the person
who tells Miss Lockwood what has become
of Ferrari, if''-
She stopped, with her eyes fixed on
Agnes.
IF what?" Henry asked.
"If Miss Lockwood forces me to it."
Agnes listened in establishment. Force
you 10 it," she repeated. How can | do
that? Do you mean TO say my will Is
stronger than yOurs?"
do you mean to say that the candle
doesn't burn the moth when the moth flies
into it?" Lady Montbarry Feioined. "Haye
you ever heard of such thing as the fasci-
nation of terror? / am drawn to you. by a
fascination of terror. l have no right to
visit you. l have no wish to visit you;
you are my enemy. For the first time In
my life, against my wi will, l submit TO
my enemy. See!I am waiting because
you told me to wait; and the fear Of you i
it, creeps through me while l stand
here. Oh, don't let me excite your curiosity
or your pity! Follow the example of Mr..
Westwick. Be hard and brutal and I'M
forgiving, like him. Grant me my release;
tell me to CO."
The frank and simple nature Of Agnes
could discover but one ineligible meaning
in this strange outbreak.
''You are mistaken in thinking me your
enemy" she said. THE wrong you did
me when you gave your hand to Lord
Montbarry was not Intentionally done. 1
forgaye you my sufferings in his lifetime.
| forgive you even more now that he has
gone"
Henry heard her with mingled emotions
of admiration and distress Say no
morew he exclaimed. "You are too good
to her; she is not worthy OF it"
The interruption passed UNDECIDED by
Lady Mout6arry. The simple words in
which Agnes had replied seemed to have
absorbed the whole attention OF this
strangely ehangeable woman. As she
listened, her face settled slowly into an eX-
preston Of hard and fearless sorrow. There
was a marked change in her voice when
she spoke next. 1t expressed that last,
worst resignation which has done with
hope.
You good, innocent creature, " she said;
what does your amiable forgiveness mat
ter? What are your poor little wrongs in
the reckoning for greater wrongs which is
demanded of me? | am not trying to frigh-
ten you; | am only miserable about myself.
Do you know what it is to have a firm pre-
sentiment of calamity that is coming to
,ou, and yet 10 hope that your own positive
conviction will not prove truei When L
first met you, before my marriage, aud hrst
felt your influence over me, l had that
hope. 1t was a starveling sort OF hope
that lived a lingering life in me until to-
day. You struck it dead when you an
swered my question about Ferrari."
"How have | destroyed your hopes?'
Agnes asked. What connection Is there
between my permitting Ferrari to use my
name 10 Lord MOntbsrry and the strange
and dreadful things you are saying to NE
now"
THE time is near, Miss Lockwood,
when you will discover that for yourself.
In the meanwhile, yOu shall know what
my. fear Of you is in the p~lainest words
can find. Ga the day when | took your
hero from you and blighted your lite-l am
firmly persuaded of it--yOu were made the
Instrument Of the retributiOn that my sins
of many years hid deserved. Oh, such
things have happened before to-day. One
person has before now been the means OF
inuOcently ripening the growth Of evil in
another. You have done that already
and you haze more TO do yet. You have
still to bring me to the day of discovery,
aud to the punishment that is my doom,
We shall meet ~again-here in England OF
there in Venice, where my husband died,
and meet for the last time"
In spite OF her better sense, in spite OF
her natural superiority to superstltlons Oh
all kinds, Agnes was Impressed by the ter
rible earnestness with which thOGe words
were spoken. She turned pale ~ she look,
ed at Henry. "Do you understand herr
she asked.